It may seem a little too neat that Grossmith and Barrington get struck down by oyster poisoning on the very day that they want to prise extra-big pay rises out of Carte, especially when he was offering them more modest pay rises anyway, and we've just seen them be casually racist about African people. But the film is set during a very hot summer, and in the late 19th century, oyster poisoning from bad refrigeration was far more common than it is today. They were dicing with an upset stomach as soon as they ordered oysters at all, let alone when they ordered the extra dozen.
